


RewindTale

by TreelessJungle



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Literature, Romance, fan fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-04
Updated: 2016-05-04
Packaged: 2018-06-06 08:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6746812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TreelessJungle/pseuds/TreelessJungle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Young adult female Frisk wakes up in the barrier and wants to get out. Unable to remember anything but the basics of who she is and why she's here, she ventures her way back to the Ruins in the hopes of getting out somehow without having to kill Asgore to break the barrier- all with a tired Sans helping her through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	RewindTale

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first half of Part One of my 6-Part story for my new UT AU RewindTale! It's originally uploaded on Deviantart- if there's a a way to leave clickable links, lemme know, but if not you can copy and paste http://treelessjungle.deviantart.com/ and check out the outline :D I'm really excited about it, and I hope you guys like it. It'll be really confusing to start out- I warn you that. Lemme know your thoughts, critique, or anything you think I should fix or add!!

# Asgore's Castle: Part One

There was white. That was it. In that moment, that was all she could register; she had awoken from... what could've been sleep, and she was now seeing white.

_Dude... Get up..._

Her mind was briefly sidetracked by multiple commands sent to her numb hand that reached their target but failed to be enacted. 

Yet when she continued thinking, there was still nothing else she could- Wait.

She was Frisk. Yes, Frisk. That was familiar. Frisk, the fallen human child. Fallen from... where again?

Her body twitched, but afterwards remained still.

And was she a child? Something about her didn't feel like a child. But how would a child feel like a child? Only an adult could know the distinction. No, she couldn't be a child. She was lacking something.

The whiteness faded into black, then sprung back to life again.

Innocence. It was innocence. Innocence and naivety. She didn't feel either of those, not to the extent that a child would. On the contrary, she felt very aware.

_Come ooooon- if I can't make you, you have to do it yourself!_

Once again darkness flooded her vision, but when she took a moment to blink, she'd opened her eyes to the familiar white.

She could move now. She couldn't before.

After testing out her fingers by stretching and clenching them into a fist, she shakily put to use the motor skills that had escaped her for a few moments upon awakening and sat up. She rubbed at her eyes, briefly thrown and irritated by the thick bangs curling over them, and took as best a look around as she could.

She was in the barrier. Now she remembered. The softly whirring, peaceful barrier at the end of her journey. Where she'd... Where... And Asriel...

Her head swiveled around, seeing the same whiteness she had before, but now registering its presence with disquietude.

She was in the Underground. She was back in the Underground. 

_'Why was she back in the Underground?'_

Her calm mental observation quickly became perturbed and she hurriedly rose to her feet, regretting the decision almost immediately when a rush of vertigo knocked her back down like a wave.

She wasn't supposed to still be here! She had won, hadn't she? She'd saved everyone, and together they'd gone to the surface, and then... She'd...

She couldn't remember. 

Slowly this time, she pushed off her hands and rose again. She blinked rapidly and clutched her forehead with three fingers, as though that would jumpstart some remembrance.

She couldn't remember anything after leaving the surface. She knew it was real- it had to have been. She remembered her joy at seeing the real sun again, the feeling of the warmth of its rays mixed with the chill of the soft breeze, the soft and almost unnoticeable grin glued to her face as her friends chatted amiably around her- friends whose names still escaped her-

_FOOM!_

The barrier's cycle of light had passed on to the exit and left her in darkness as the unsettling sound of something- was it exploding?- reached her ears, breaking her train of thought and locking her bones into a tense paralysis. Slowly, her eyes turned to the entrance.

She didn't understand what was going on. She wasn't sure when, if ever, she would.

Another crash sounded, slightly louder this time. This one knocked her limbs into motion, determined legs striding forward towards the doorway.

If there was one thing she was sure of, however, it was that things weren't supposed to be as they were now. And  she needed to change that.

She had to get back out. Now.

\------

Knee high boots that she was simultaneously growing fond of and irritable towards clacked quieter and quieter down the first hallway as she quickly grew unsure of herself. As she reached an empty room of sorts with a doorway on her left leading elsewhere, she fully paused under the unseen light illuminating its middle and analyzed her situation a second time.

She really had no idea what she was doing. She could barely remember anything of the Underground. How was she supposed to figure out where she was going?! She knew that she'd just been in the barrier, but where even was she now?

_You're in the castle._

Right, the castle. She remembered these walls. But... _whose_ castle?

_Asgore's, ya dip._

Asgore... She knew him. Yes.

....

Who was he, again?

_UGH! You're hopeless._

And it was by this point discerned by Frisk that the voice answering her mental questions was not hers, so she reacted accordingly. 

Her head swiveled around quickly, looking for something, _anything_ , that could've been the source of the voice. But like she'd acknowledged when she first walked it, it was still empty. Her fervent search left her as confused as before, but now with the unwelcome addition of whiplash.

_Yeesh. You really are disoriented... or just stupid. I like stupid better._

_'Who are you?'_ Frisk demanded anxiously as she clutched the back of her neck, calm enough to understand that speaking out loud was somehow unnecessary.

 _Who are_ you? _Oh wait, I already know. Better than you do, anyway._

Frisk's eyes squinted suspiciously at her condescending yet mirthful tone, paranoia tempting her heart rate to increase. 

Knuckles tensed. _'How do you know who I am?'_ Eyebrows furrowed. _'How are you in my head?'_

The distant female voice snickered in response.

 _Why bother explaining when you'll probably just forget again?_ Her voice became fluttery and falsely soothing. _I do beg you not to make me waste my breath, **my dear child**._

Frisk's eyebrows furrowed further at the wiggle in her brain telling her that the voice was imitating someone she knew as well as its belittling use of the word 'child.'

(Which she wasn't, by the way. She'd noticed that as she stood. A strange thing to acknowledge in passing, she knew, but for whatever odd reason she didn't feel out of place. Something about this- perhaps adolescent?- body felt familiar, normal. It was as though she'd already lived in it before, though she couldn't recall ever being this old. 

... Though, she couldn't remember much of anything really.)

The light shake of the room preceded by another crash from wherever in the building cut Frisk off from asking the voice for its identity again. Instead she turned to the doorway as the following silence was interrupted by deep, soft humming. Frisk squinted; from where she stood she could see blurs of yellow and green, as well as an orange, sort of checkerboard flooring, but she didn't see a person.

_Hey, why don't you go check that out? You're going that way, ain't 'cha?_

Frisk paused, then nodded before walking forward into the next room. She had only stepped onto the first orange tile when she saw him. Giant, hulking, and humming as he was, the goat- ram?- was hard to ignore. 

She couldn't say the same for herself, though. His back wasn't quite towards her, as he was facing a side wall with Frisk on his left and the entrance to another hallway on his right, but regardless he stayed unaware of the second presence in his midst. She'd remained in the shadows for more than a minute watching him water the yellow flowers of his garden before realizing that she was being rude.

 _Pff- What?!_ The voice interjected, choking on nonexistent breath as Frisk quietly ventured closer, _You've got a giant cow in your midst that could kill you in an instant and you don't want to be rude?_

Thrown off by a sudden dip onto lower flooring- not unlike walking down a staircase and missing that there was one last step before solid ground- Frisk's next step was unbalanced as she fell slightly forward to recover. The resulting sound was loud enough to alert the gardening monster, as his ears pricked upward. His eyes refrained searching for the source, however, as he replied with his posture still bent towards his work, "Someone there? One second, I'm almost done."

His voice seemed distracted in more ways than one; as a result, his words, though gentle and kind-sounding, felt rather off and ungenuine for reasons Frisk couldn't begin to guess. But if there was one thing she'd been sure of from the moment she saw the purple cape to just now hearing his voice, it was that this was Asgore. And, in response to the voice's question...

"I felt it would be rude," she said quietly while advancing into the garden, "Not to introduce myself..."

The king paused and stood erect, momentarily startled upon finding that the voice was on his left. Even still, he calmed shortly after and placed his watering can on the ground as he replied.

"Well, then. I think it'd only be fair if I too introduced..." He turned fully and their eyes met. ".... Myself."

Frisk watched in wonder as the monster's face became a storm, flashes of emotions streaming through his eyes and into his expression like lightning. A distant boom added its percussive thunder to his clouded state so perfectly that Frisk briefly wondered if it was timed. 

"Oh." Was all he said after a while.

 _Oh._ The voice deadpanned. _His name's Oh, Frisk- in case you missed it._

Shaking off the sarcastic hopefully-figment ( _You wish_) in her brain and the nerves that'd radiated off of the King and onto herself, Frisk beamed at her company in the hopes of breaking his gloom. "Hello."

Asgore paused, blinking at the candid kindness in her expression and not thinking to resist his inclination to reciprocate. Seconds later, a gentle, tired, wistful smile coaxed the sides of his lips to lift- to reach for the ceiling and up towards the sky: the sky that he'd never seen, that she'd lost in her descent, and that they were both fighting to return to.

"Hello."

\-------

She should've turned left. 

The hallway had been silent until the voice quietly whispered for her to go right. Startled by its lack of condescension she'd immediately followed it, hurrying down the pathway that she- rather quickly- realized led to the source of all the noise.

Didn't matter to her, anyhow. She'd already figured that she would have to face it eventually. There were only so many places to go in this castle; it was rather straightforward in design. A simple home for a simple King- a King who was still calling after her as she essentially ran away from the dark proposal that he'd made to seem commonplace. 

But regardless she figured that now was as good a time as any to finally discover the force behind the thunderous noises echoing as far back as the barrier. Loud enough for Asgore to maintain an air of subtle perturbation throughout their conversation. Though he was good at masking through genuine smiles and a leveled, calm tone to his deep voice, Frisk had taken note of his alert stance, the stiffness of his shoulders, and how his eyes shifted to the entrance of his garden whenever it got too quiet. 

Whatever was going on in the hall before her bothered him to the point of anxiety, and through mental osmosis she too ended up bothered, even as her feet brought her closer without hesitation.

No matter, though. Anywhere was better than the throne room; she had no intention to return there.

"yeah. my special attack. sound familiar?"

Frisk's pace slowed, however, as her muddled mind cleared enough to acknowledge that there were not only sounds of destruction, but _voices_ coming from the room ahead of her. Or one, at least. She tried to focus on what they were saying as the doorway became within reach. 

"-after the next move, i'm going to use it. so, if you don't want to see it, now would be a good time to die."

Frisk blinked. The voice in her head snickered.

Curious hands reached forward and cautiously gripped the doorframe as she leaned forward to peek at the scene.

 _Ehhhh I'm not so sure you should walk in right now._ The voice objected, freezing Frisk in place with its unanticipated earnestness. _Actually, I'm really sure that you should do the exact opposite of that and wait until it's quiet._

Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What was the problem?

"well, here goes nothing... are you ready?" The voice- definitely male- continued, and Frisk's attention returned to the mystery of the hall before her ( _Don't do it, Frisk_ ), "survive THIS ( _I know what you're thinking_ ) and i'll show you my special attack!"

Against her better judgment and the voice almost shouting inside her head, she poked her head past the door( _Oh my GOD, Frisk_ )way to look inside.

She was nearly blinded, falling to the floor as a bright blue blitzkrieg of bones burst to life in front of her- one of the latter flying into the wall past where her head would've been had she remained standing.  

Blasts and booms overwhelmed her eardrums until she had the common sense to cover them- though her hands didn't do much other than provide comfort. She stayed on the cool ceramic tiling, eyes closed as the attack ensuing only yards away from her continued.

The voice was having a field day.

_HAHAHAHA now WHAT did I tell you, idiot?? It's LITERALLY a war zone in here._

_Don't they always tell you to listen to the little voice in your head?_

_Do us both a favor and get out of the crossfire- oh, and try not to get crushed by that ceiling plank._

What?

Frisk peeked one eye open and upwards in enough time to quickly roll away before the falling projectile pierced her side- then roll again when stone chipping off a buckling pillar nearly rained down onto her skull- and finally rise to her feet and dart back to the doorway as the pillar decided to give in to its inevitable destruction by finally crumbling to the floor. 

_Well would you look at that? You're rather spry for an old woman._ The voice snickered. _Just kidding. You can't be that old- look at those boobs._

Even while bent over with one hand clutching the doorframe as she breathed in relief, Frisk's face fell deadpan. 

"huff... puff... all right. that's it. it's time for my special attack." Frisk tensed, prepared to turn around and bolt down the hallway to find another way out altogether. "are you ready? here goes nothing."

There was a brief shuffle and the scuffing of shoes across the floor, then silence. Frisk waited, but nothing more happened. As her stiff posture inevitably loosened, she slowly gathered the courage to venture another go at entering the room.

_Alright Eager McSuckyListener, I think it's safe to go back in now._

So she did. 

And she was rendered speechless by the sight of herself. Literally. As in, she was literally looking at herself.

"yep. that's right. it's literally nothing. and it's not going to be anything, either."

Frisk blinked. There was another Frisk in this room. A younger one, but... still… _her_?

 _Well, now._ The voice drawled mockingly, not sounding very surprised at all. _Ain't that a can of worms?_

Frisk stared at the younger version of herself. They were small- less than half her height. Then again, Frisk had learned that she must've been taller than the average human; her head almost reached the top of each doorframe. Even the massive Asgore had been thrown off when she'd gotten close enough for a mental comparison to be made.

Nevertheless, this little Frisk hadn't gone through their growth spurt yet. Even still, they stared down their enemy with a mature hatred that older Frisk wasn't even sure she carried. 

Speaking of enemy... Frisk turned her attention to the second person in the room, the one who'd trapped her younger self in a soft aura of a blue. Though she couldn't see much of his body from where she was standing, the clear white shape of his skull and the bones seen jutting out from under shorts into pink slippers tipped her off that this monster was definitely-

_Oh hey, a skeleton... We should kill him!_

Frisk's expression darkened, as it had when the voice first suggested that she kill back in the throne room.

_Those were his words, not mine! I was only restating what he said had to be done. He kills you and the barrier is broken. You kill him and the barrier is broken. Either way, silly...._

Her voice fell into a quiet, mad purr.

_**It's kill or be killed**._

Instead of listening, Frisk tuned back in to whatever the familiar skeleton was saying.

"you're just gonna kill me. so, uh. i've decided... it's not gonna BE your turn." The young Frisk's arm holding the knife swung forward to strike, but a flick of the skeleton's wrist fully encapsulated it in blue before bringing it back to her side. "ever."

The younger Frisk stopped struggling, instead glaring him down intensely.

_See? You'd be doing the world a favor by killing him. Look at how cruel he's being to tiny you._

Tiny her didn't look very defensible to Frisk. The child was covered in dust, twitching, and tightly clutching a knife like it was another limb.

"i'm just gonna keep having MY turn until you give up. even if it means we have to stand here until the end of time. capiche?"

The child didn't reply, as both of the other parties had learned to expect. What she did do, however, was take note of older Frisk's presence and stare her down blankly. Frisk stared back, eyes wide and stance matching that of a deer caught in headlights.

"and what are you looking for? some kind of loophole? you won't find it over there. you're better off giving up entirely."

The child just continue staring, and the skeleton felt his curiosity get the better of him. "kid, what are you looking-" he glanced over his shoulder and met Frisk's eyes, "... at?"

And seeing his white pinprick eyes, the constant wide-toothed grin on his face, and the red scarf loosely wrapped around his neck, Frisk felt the name roll off her tongue as easily as an exhale of breath.

" _Sans._ "

The skeleton's eye sockets widened as his glowing pupils shrunk. 

"what the-...? _another_ one?"

In his shock he released the small Frisk, who darted forward to finally attack. Sans gathered his bearings, however, quick enough to freeze her body mid-stride and fling it back into a pillar. The young girl hit with a loud crack that made Frisk cringe before falling to the floor. If she wasn't already dead, she certainly wouldn't be getting up for a while.

With his attention now entirely on Frisk, the skeleton slowly advanced towards Frisk, his stance exhausted yet still somehow menacing. "i don't know how you're here..."

Blue flames lit up his left eye as he drew closer, and Frisk's heart rate quickened. "i don't know _why_ you're here..."

He came to a stop merely feet in front of her, arm rising to stretch out towards her, and Frisk knew this conversation was going to end badly. Very badly.

"i don't even know _**who**_ you are... but-"

"Frisk." She interjected quickly with as calmly as possibly, holding out her hand with a bright albeit nervous smile, "My name is Frisk. And you're...?" 

She cringed mentally.

_Yeah. Feel stupid. Why even ask? He clearly heard you say his name._

Sans' pupils disappeared, leaving his eye sockets black and empty. Frisk's smile almost dropped, but she determinedly kept it kind and genuine. 

" **what**?"

She actually cringed this time.

"I-" Frisk was about to repeat herself, but then paused before trying a joke instead. "Pleasure to meet you, 'What.' You have a lovely name."

_Aaauuuuugh-_

When he didn't immediately reply, she grabbed his hand out of the air and shook it twice before dropping her arm back to her side.

Sans blinked ( _Wait, did he just...? Whu- how did... Did this SKELETON just BLINK?_ ), but his glowing pinpricks were still nowhere to be seen. He looked down, a low chuckle rising up his throat and reverberating throughout the silent hall. 

"nice try, kid." When he raised his head to meet her eyes, his grin of gritted teeth and hard, menacing eyes left her speechless and afraid. "you're a good distractor.... **but so am i**."

The blue that'd once captured the young Frisk now lifted her elder into the air. Frisk began to hyperventilate as bones appeared out of thin air at Sans' side, and a floating dragon-like head loomed threateningly behind him. What was...?

_Gaster Blaster._

Gaster Blaster.

"i don't know what your purpose is here- what you're trying to pull. but if you think for one second that i'm just gonna accept some random human anomaly in the timeline- that _just so happens_ to look like and have the same name as the soft-spoken sally devil spawn back there- with a few puns and welcome arms..."

The glowing grip on Frisk tightened, and it became harder to breathe.

_Siiigh, I don't think that'll be an issue in a moment. Good job, Frisk._

Frisk's hidden eyes widened as the world around her darkened and Sans' now blue-yellow left eye became one of the few things she could see.

"y o u ' r e  b e t t e r  o f f  b u r n i n g  w i t h  t h e  k i d ."

All at once bones and blue hot light pierced her body and Frisk screamed in pain. The laughs of the voice in her head died out as her vision quickly turned black.

And all at once, she woke up once again in the barrier- unhurt, unthreatened, but undeniably scarred.

She'd reset. Like most of the things she was learning about herself today, this understanding of how the Underground worked returned to her memory as though it'd never left at all. Sans had killed her, and she reset.

_Hehehe... Let's give that another go, shall we?_

She should've turned left.

**Author's Note:**

> Pleeeeeeease give me some feedback on what you think of my take. I know it's rather confusing right now- it's going to be like that for a while- but let me know your likes and dislikes! Criticize me!!! And thank you guys for checking this out :)


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